Peter Coyote, on protesting

[Checkerboard Strangler]

The far left has a credibility gap

Using footage from 2020 and you claim credibility gap?

 

[Hamish Howl]

The peace marches in Los Angeles against GWB’s Iraq invasion had lots of monitors as well as observers from the Lawyers Guild. The monitors were effective in isolating Black Bloc members initiating violence, and the attorney-observers served to remind any rogue officer to play by the rules.

Those at the front of the march holding the outsized banner were a combination of local activists, politicians, and others recognizable to the general public.

As far as noise, the Aztec dancers were always there, as were members of the Bus Riders’ Union with their empty five-gallon plastic buckets being used as drums. Local union chapters were represented with UTLA (teachers) generally having a large contingent. Noh performers, dressed in rags and ashes representing survivors of bombings, crept and crawled along the route. Buddhist monks had their contingent, as well as other church-based pacifist groups. Veteran groups as well. And ordinary everyday people, with their children — walking with them or in strollers or child carriers.

The marches represented a range of communities, and ages, who opposed the illegal invasion of Iraq.

It is nice to share a nation with people like you.

But I'm not like you.

 

[venice_ca]

It is nice to share a nation with people like you.

But I'm not like you.

(I have my moments when I let out my inner political screech owl — not very pretty, but there it is.)

 

[Diving Mullah]

Peter Coyote, on protest:

"I’m watching the Los Angeles reaction to ICE raids with trepidation and regret.
Three years ago I taught a class at Harvard on the “theater of protest”— designed to help people understand why so many protests turn out to be Republican campaign videos working directly against the interests of the original protest.
A protest is an invitation to a better world.
It’s a ceremony.
No one accepts a ceremonial invitation when they’re being screamed at.

More important you have to know who the real audience of the protest is.
The audience is NEVER the police, the politicians, the Board of supervisors, Congress,etc.
The audience is always the American people, who are trying to decide who they can trust; who will not embarrass them.
If you win them, you win power at the box office and power to make positive change.
Everything else is a waste.

There are a few ways to get there:

1. Let women organize the event. They’re more collaborative. They’re more inclusive, and they don’t generally bring the undertones of violence men do.
2 Appoint monitors, give them yellow, vests and whistles. At the first sign of violence, they blow the whistles and the real protester sit down.
Let the police take out their aggression on the anarchists and the provocateurs trying to discredit the movement.
3. Dress like you’re going to church. It’s hard to be painted as a hoodlum when you’re dressed in clean, presentable clothes.
They don’t have to be fancy they just signal the respect for the occasion that you want to transmit to the audience.
4. Make your protest silent. Demonstrate your discipline to the American people. Let signs do the talking.
5. Go home at night. In the dark, you can’t tell the cops from the killers. Come back at dawn fresh and rested.
I have great fear that Trump’s staging with the National Guard and maybe the Marines is designed to clash with anarchists who are playing into his hands and offering him the opportunity to declare an insurrection.
It’s such a waste and it’s only because we haven’t thought things through strategically.

Nothing I thought of is particularly original.
It was all learned by watching the early civil rights protests in the 50s and 60s.
And it was the discipline and courage of African-Americans that drew such a clear line in the American sand that people were forced to take sides and that produced the civil rights act.
The American people are watching and once again if we behave in ways that can be misinterpreted, we’ll see this explained to the public in Republican campaign videos benefiting the very people who started this.

Wake up.
Vent at home.
In public practice discipline and self control.
It takes much more courage."

Note: Carry an American flag. As the administration creates a fake emergency to justify a state crackdown, it's important to honor the values and vision of democracy for which we're advocating.
When the Enquirer came for pics back in 2017, I smiled a big toothy grin and held a big flag as it felt so empowering and good to stand with my adult daughter, pastors, Franciscans, nuns, kids, parents, grandparents and some women from our women's groups for the values we tried to pass on.
After the protest, we sang and marched to a church where we heard poignant witness of immigrants trying to build a better life for their families against insurmountable odds.
Many Marines, National Guardsmen and vets are over on Threads and Substack expressinging their disagreement over being used by this lawless administration.

Peace, santi and shalom to all.

— Peter Coyote

I hope Peter and the rest understand this truth carved in history’s bones:
No peaceful protest has ever truly stirred the soul of power to change.
Not without the echo of defiance,
not without the fire of those so desperate, so raw with injustice,
they’re willing to wager flesh and blood for a sliver of hope.


When the voiceless rise,
limping toward freedom with nothing but rage in their hearts
and courage in their veins,
they will meet men with guns—men sworn to preserve the rot
just as it is.


And when those two forces collide, the earth drinks deeply.
The streets run red,
until either the dreamers are silenced in full
or the executioners grow weary of the slaughter.

Diving Mullah

 

[venice_ca]

And police still attacked peaceful protestors during them.

In Los Angeles? I don’t really recall.

Protesters did protect some Black Bloc wannabes from aggressive police charges — the small group wasn’t doing anything more than walking together.

I think the size of the antiwar marches discouraged obvious and hostile attacks.

I think the presence of an older/more mature demographic discouraged hostile attacks.

Smaller turnout, young crowd, no monitors — chances greatly increase for aggression by LAPD. Just my opinion.

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

I hope Peter and the rest understand this truth carved in history’s bones:
No peaceful protest has ever truly stirred the soul of power to change.
Not without the echo of defiance,
not without the fire of those so desperate, so raw with injustice,
they’re willing to wager flesh and blood for a sliver of hope.


When the voiceless rise,
limping toward freedom with nothing but rage in their hearts
and courage in their veins,
they will meet men with guns—men sworn to preserve the rot
just as it is.


And when those two forces collide, the earth drinks deeply.
The streets run red,
until either the dreamers are silenced in full
or the executioners grow weary of the slaughter.

Diving Mullah

“When it gets down to having to use violence, then you are playing the system’s game.
The establishment will irritate you – pull your beard, flick your face – to make you fight.
Because once they’ve got you violent, then they know how to handle you.
The only thing they don’t know how to handle is non-violence and humor.”​

 

[Diving Mullah]

“When it gets down to having to use violence, then you are playing the system’s game.​

The establishment will irritate you – pull your beard, flick your face – to make you fight.​

Because once they’ve got you violent, then they know how to handle you.​

The only thing they don’t know how to handle is non-violence and humor.”​

View attachment 67574209

True—yet deeply ironic—that those who most often speak of peace are the ones who so often meet their end in violence.

Let’s count a few...
Gandhi—both of them.
Martin Luther King Jr., Robert Kennedy, Yitzhak Rabin, our dear John Lennon, Benazir Bhutto.
Abraham Lincoln (where the list practically begins), Archbishop Romero, Anwar Sadat...
Each one chased peace—and paid for it in blood.
And as much as I love Lennon, he was wrong on one point: a hunger strike didn’t end the Vietnam War.
It was angry, grieving veterans.
It was students in the streets getting beaten, gassed, and shot.
It was resistance with calloused fists and tear-stained banners.
Same with the end of slavery.
Same with the suffrage movement.
Same with civil rights.
Peace isn’t handed over—it’s wrestled into existence.


Diving Mullah

 

[NolanVoyd]

Good advice.

Will they take it? I doubt it. Left wing protesters like to be angry.

Like this.

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

True—yet deeply ironic—that those who most often speak of peace are the ones who so often meet their end in violence.

Let’s count a few...
Gandhi—both of them.
Martin Luther King Jr., Robert Kennedy, Yitzhak Rabin, our dear John Lennon, Benazir Bhutto.
Abraham Lincoln (where the list practically begins), Archbishop Romero, Anwar Sadat...
Each one chased peace—and paid for it in blood.
And as much as I love Lennon, he was wrong on one point: a hunger strike didn’t end the Vietnam War.
It was angry, grieving veterans.
It was students in the streets getting beaten, gassed, and shot.
It was resistance with calloused fists and tear-stained banners.
Same with the end of slavery.
Same with the suffrage movement.
Same with civil rights.
Peace isn’t handed over—it’s wrestled into existence.


Diving Mullah

Hey, I guess you missed it when I warned that there is no guarantee that there won't be blood.

 

[Bighorn66]

How about we expect the white liberal moderates to make sacrifices for once?

That reminds me of JFK’ famous quote.

Ask not what you can do for your country—Ask what someone else can do for your country.

 

[Diving Mullah]

Hey, I guess you missed it when I warned that there is no guarantee that there won't be blood.

No...my point was you actually need blood!

The person who first breaks through the wall always ends up with a bloody face!